Season Eight
by VaderSpike
Summary: Buffy adjusts to her new home in Cleveland, an old enemy returns with a vengeance, and the new Big Bads are quite . . . unexpected. 22 episode season. Summary format. Eventual B/X. Mentions of B/S, X/A.
1. Season Eight

Takes place two years after Buffy Season Seven, one year after Angel Season Five, and directly after Angel Season Six (After the Fall). Runs parallel to Angel Season Seven.

Season Eight

Main Cast

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane

Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells

And

Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

1: Cleveland (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Michelle Trachtenberg, Iyari Limon, Indigo, Felicia Day, and D.B. Woodside as Robin Wood) - Real time: Buffy, Xander, Willow, Faith, Andrew, and thirty-something slayers stare at something in front of them. Buffy says "Yeah, this'll do just fine." Flashback to 2003, a few days after "Chosen": The school bus is parked outside a small diner in Nevada. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Dawn, Faith, Andrew, Kennedy, Rona, Vi, and Robin are sitting at the largest table (Robin and Rona have already been to a hospital). Buffy announces that she will be splitting everybody up to round up other activated slayers around the world before settling down in Cleveland, the location of the next Hellmouth, as her main headquarters: She and Dawn will go to Rome so Dawn can finish school, Xander to Africa, Willow and Kennedy to Brazil, Giles and Andrew to England (So Andrew can begin Watcher training), Robin to New York, Vi to Japan, Rona to China, and Faith to Cleveland, where she will stay and train the slayers who had survived the previous battle in Sunnydale. A few hours later, everyone is at the Nevada airport and preparing to depart for their respective destinations. Buffy assures them that most of their positions are going to be temporary. They depart. Flash forward to 2005, two days before real-time (A couple of months after Angel Season Six ended): In Rome, Buffy and Dawn discuss her going to college. Buffy isn't comfortable leaving Dawn by herself while she rearranges everybody's locations, so she allows her to come with her to the Cleveland airport where they will rendezvous with the others. Xander, Willow, Giles, Faith, Andrew, and the home group of slayers left with Faith are there waiting for them. Giles agrees to accompany Dawn back to Rome and help enroll her into college. They take the next plane back to Rome while Buffy, Xander, Willow, Faith, Andrew, and the other slayers head off to find a base for themselves (The one Faith had used previously had kicked them out because they were partying and making too much noise). Now back to real-time. Turns out they were looking at an old, abandoned hotel building all by itself. Xander asks how this can possibly be 'just fine'. Buffy asks him to think of another place that could hold thirty-plus people. They enter the building and see that it is very moldy and dilapidated. Xander sighs and says unenthusiastically "Home sweet home."

2: Home Improvement – Buffy and the others to try to adjust to their new base by cleaning and repairing it, dealing with some odd occurrences along the way.

3: Vengeance (Guest Star: Andy Umberger) - A Vengeance demon blends in as a slayer and causes mayhem by having others unintentionally state wishes (including Andrew's "I wish that everyone liked me more.", causing everyone to clamor for his attention, Willow's "I wish that everyone would just back off of me a little.", after which nobody could come within five feet of her, being stopped by an invisible force field, and Faith's "I wish we could have more action instead of sitting around.", resulting in the base being attacked non-stop by demons and vampires). After realizing what is happening, Xander summons D'Hoffryn and convinces him to withdraw his demon after telling him about Anya's death and that he now knows how he had felt when she had chosen to become human and had lost her forever. They eventually form to a truce: D'Hoffryn doesn't bother Buffy again and vice-versa.

4: Possessive Love (Gust Stars: Sean Maher, and Christina Hendricks) - Willow discovers a spirit who had been a past resident of the hotel, trapped in the building by a vengeance spell cast by his obsessive ex-girlfriend, who also ended up trapped there by accident. The catch of the spell is that once they are freed, one of them goes to heaven, and the other to hell. After both spirits are released, the ex-girlfriend possesses Buffy and seduces Xander into kissing her, but gives herself away by not knowing who Spike was. Then the other spirit possesses Xander in order to fight her. The girlfriend is forced out of Buffy and banished to hell. The other spirit leaves Xander, thanks them for their help, and ascends to heaven. After Willow fills them in, Xander tells Buffy about what had happened between him and 'her'. She feels bad for misleading him. Leaving the room, Xander suddenly realizes that his old crush on Buffy has unexpectedly returned in full force.

5: A Beautiful Mind (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head) - Giles returns and tells Buffy and everyone else about what had happened to him after he dropped off Dawn in Rome. He had gotten involved in a demonic competition for his life where he had to compete against a demon tribe's most intelligent member. If Giles won, he goes free, but if he lost, he would be killed. After winning the contest, the demons actually decided to worship Giles' intelligence. Only after making up a story about needing to stop a volcano erupting with the power of his brain did he convince them to let him go.

6: Lost Love (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Star: Amber Benson as Tara) - While Faith and Andrew organize a training session for the other slayers, Willow is visited by Tara in a dream, warning her about an upcoming threat 'not from our world'. Buffy and Xander consult each other about Anya and Spike and their passing, then spontaneously kiss (for real this time). Andrew walks in to tell Buffy about the training session (awkward silence).

7: Psychology (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Amy Acker, and James Marsters as Spike) - While Giles and Willow discuss her dream from the previous episode, Andrew has a private psychology session with Buffy and Xander. Xander admits that he still has feelings for Buffy, but feels somewhat guilty about it after everything he went through with Anya, while Buffy isn't sure what she's feeling and doesn't want to risk rushing into another failing relationship. Andrew suggests that they let it play out and see how they feel about each other later. After they leave, Andrew gets a call from Spike and Illyria, warning him that Tucker has escaped.

8: Brotherly Love (Guest Stars: James C. Leary, with Brad Kane) - While Buffy and the others take the slayers out for a training session, Andrew battles with his feelings about Tucker. He isn't very fond of him, but doesn't want him to kill Buffy or be killed himself. He also knows that Tucker is capable of what Warren had done if he was tempted to do it. He eventually decides that as long as Tucker doesn't turn up, he won't tell Buffy about him. Meanwhile, Tucker has arrived at the crater that was once Sunnydale and runs into Clem, who comes by on a regular basis to pay his respects for Spike's death. Tucker asks him if he knows where Buffy is. Clem says she may have gone to the other Hellmouth in Cleveland. A few hours later, Clem sees Tucker off at a bus station.

9: Rematch (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Star: Rudolph Martin) - Dracula finds Buffy and confronts her about her 'ensouled ex'. After being defeated by her and resented by Xander, Dracula announces that he is going to retire to Transylvania to ensure that his reputation will not be ruined by anyone again. Giles asks Xander why he acted particularly jealously toward Dracula about Buffy. Andrew then reveals what had happened a few weeks earlier.

10: Black Mirror, Part 1(Special Guest Stars: Nathan Fillion, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Mark Metcalf, Clare Kramer, George Hertzberg, with Brad Kane) - Tucker arrives in Cleveland and prepares a summoning spell. In the middle of the questioning of Buffy and Xander, they, Willow, and Faith vanish. Andrew, the only other person with them at the time, had been left behind. He finds Giles, who had just left the room, and tells him what had happened. Giles asks him if he knows anyone or anything that can summon or teleport people. Then Andrew realized why he must've been spared: Tucker had found them and learned how to summon people as well as demons. Meanwhile, Buffy and the others find themselves in a parallel universe upon meeting alternate vampiric versions of themselves, plus Giles and Andrew. Parallel Xander has an axe slash over his left eye (similar to Kakistos' injury) instead of an eye patch, Parallel Andrew has a Mohawk, Parallel Giles has a mullet and a very Ripper-like appearance, while Parallel Buffy has black highlights in her hair and is wearing an outfit similar to The Master's. After a short fight, the parallel versions have them beaten, until they are unexpectedly saved by parallel versions of Glory, Caleb, Adam, and The Master.

11: Black Mirror, Part 2 (Special Guest Stars: Nathan Fillion, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Amy Acker, Mark Metcalf, Clare Kramer, George Hertzberg, with Brad Kane, and James Marsters as Spike)- After the parallel good guys are driven off, the Parallel Master (known as Heinrich) and Glory tell Buffy and the others about their universe: Glory (The Slayer), Caleb (Glory's Watcher), and Heinrich (a vampire cursed with a soul) fought against Parallel Buffy (known by them as The Master) and the other vampires, along with some one-time villains including The Principal (Snyder) who had ascended into a demon and eaten The Mayor, a cyborg called Riley, a hell-god called Cordelius, and a trio of vampires called The Three (of which Parallel Andrew is the only remaining member). Over time they recruited Amy; a witch, Adam; a soldier, Drusilla; a girl who was once part of a trio of nerds, and Warren; an ex-member of The Three who had fallen in love with Glory and gotten his soul for her. During the last battle of Sunnydale, Amy, Drusilla, and Warren had perished along with Heinrich, who had used an amulet to destroy the Hellmouth and take the other vampires with him. Then a few days later, Heinrich had been resurrected through the amulet and, unfortunately, so had the other vampires who had died after the amulet activated. In the real world, Andrew calls Spike and Illyria and tells them that Tucker has found Buffy. Then he goes and confronts Tucker himself.

12: Black Mirror, Part 3 (Special Guest Stars: Nathan Fillion, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Amy Acker, Mark Metcalf, Clare Kramer, George Hertzberg, with Brad Kane, and James Marsters as Spike) – After telling Andrew where he had sent Buffy, Tucker says that he had spared him because he is his brother and was hoping he would help him. They argue about opinions and loyalty until Spike and Illyria arrive. In the parallel world, Caleb tells Buffy that only way he can think of to return them to where they came from was the same way they had got there. Then their parallel selves attack again. In the ensuring battle, Parallel Faith and Andrew are killed.

13: Black Mirror, Part 4 (Special Guest Stars: Nathan Fillion, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Amy Acker, Mark Metcalf, Clare Kramer, George Hertzberg, with Brad Kane, and James Marsters as Spike) - Spike and Illyria battle demons that Tucker had summoned. Tucker reluctantly reverses the spell. Heinrich sacrifices himself to enable Buffy and the others to escape. As Buffy and the others reappear, Tucker runs off. When Buffy questions how Andrew had managed to save them all by himself, he notices Spike and Illyria slipping out quietly, not wanting her to know of their involvement.

14: Dimension of Confusion (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head) - Buffy tells Giles about the parallel world they had been to. He says that other dimensions do exist, but they should never cross paths, reminding her about what had happened when Ethan had caused dimensions to bleed into each other. After being interrogated about Tucker, Andrew decides to try to be more useful and asks Faith if she can help train him to fight better.

15: Beauty and the Geek – After extensive training, Faith feels that Andrew should be tested in a real battle. After he helps Buffy drive off a vampire attack, she admits that Andrew has definitely improved.

16: Virtual Reality (Guest Star: Brad Kane) – Tucker sends Buffy and Andrew into another dimension of his, full of various Sci-Fi characters. Andrew helps guide Buffy through the fantasy world and to escape.

17: Amy Witch Way (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Star: Elizabeth Anne Allen) - Amy returns for revenge on Willow by trying to convince her to delve into dark magic again to destroy her. Willow is almost tempted, but defeats Amy, causing her to leave town.

18: Xanderless (Special Guest Stars: Seth Green, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: David Boreanaz, Mark Metcalf, Robia LaMorte, Bianca Lawson, Christian Clemenson, Harry Groener, with Eric Balfour, and Alexis Denisof) - Xander experiences a universe in which he was never born, in which Buffy, Angel, Giles, Wesley, Cordelia, and Spike have died, while Jesse and Jenny Calendar are alive until they, along with Willow and Oz, are killed by The Mayor and his Ascension, which happened because of a chain of events starting with Buffy's permanent death at the hands of The Master. Then Glory ascended without any interference, resulting in all dimensions, including the Mayor-controlled-Earth, to be destroyed.

19: The Last Dance (Special Guest Stars: Nathan Fillion, and Anthony Stewart Head. Guest Stars: Clare Kramer, George Hertzberg, with Brad Kane) - Now desperate, Tucker summons the parallel guys to him, hoping he can negotiate with the bad ones to help him. However, they decide to kill _him_ because Tucker had summoned them and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of their Faith and Andrew. Glory, Adam, and Caleb aren't happy either, but decide to protect him since he is human. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered and killed. Tucker runs for it as the parallels take over his base. Tucker arrives at Buffy's and begs for help after explaining what had happened. Buffy demands that he turn himself over to the police. He protests, but Willow tells him that if he doesn't want to end up like Warren, he must give himself up. Tucker finally forfeits and is led off to jail. Meanwhile, the parallels decide to take over the world they are now trapped in, starting by opening the Hellmouth.

20: Traitor (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head) – After years of mistreatment, Parallel Giles is finally pushed too far and rebels against Parallel Buffy. Parallel Xander finds that the brain modification chip in his head has stopped working, meaning that he could participate in the upcoming fight. Meanwhile, Andrew has second thoughts about Tucker going to jail and attempts to break him out. Faith convinces him that Tucker needs the time in jail for his own good.

21: Double Vision (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head) - While Buffy and the others debate what to do about the parallel versions of themselves, Parallel Giles arrives, offering inside information on the other's plans. He explains how unfairly Parallel Buffy treated him and why he decided to turn against her. They are unsure of whether they can trust him, since he is an evil version of Giles. Meanwhile, Parallel Buffy, Xander, and Willow decide to attack Buffy and get rid of her so they can locate the Hellmouth without interference.

22: Broken Glass (Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head) - After recruiting some other vampires, the parallel trio attack Buffy's base. Buffy counter attacks with her percentage of the Slayer Army. Willow battles her equally magical double in a mid-air duel and barely defeats her. Andrew, Faith, Xander, Giles, and Parallel Giles take out a few vampires apiece. Xander saves Buffy from Parallel Xander, who had been teasing her about being in love with the 'dorky, wimpy' version of him in this universe. Then Buffy is attacked by her own parallel self. At this point, the surviving vampires hold everyone back as the two Buffys face off. They battle near a crack in the ground that the two Willows had caused, with magma from the Earth's core at the bottom. Parallel Buffy is about to knock Buffy down into the crack when Parallel Giles runs forward and flings himself into his old leader, knocking her off the edge along with himself, saving Buffy's life. The sun rises a few seconds later, dusting the other vampires. Later, Giles confides in Faith that he is concerned because his evil self turned out to be good after all, which he thinks could mean that he might not be. Faith reasons that Giles must be such a good person that every version of him must have decency in them. Buffy visits Xander in his room and says that she has decided to give the two of them together a shot, while Andrew sits alone in his room, thinking about Tucker.


	2. Author's Notes

Author's Notes:

First of all, thanks to everybody who has read my stories.

In this chapter I just wanted to elaborate on the reasons I made my seasons the way they were and the decisions behind it.

I had everybody move to Cleveland for the obvious reason of there being a Hellmouth there. During the first two episodes, I had to show what the characters were doing during Angel Season 5 and After the Fall, so I had them split off to different locations during that time until Buffy decided to round them up again (It is mentioned on "Angel" that certain characters were in different locations at that time, like Xander is mentioned to be in Africa, so that's why I had him sent there, to fit into the continuity). The first episode pretty much shows what had happened to them in between "Chosen" and the end of The Fall. I had decided that Eliza Dushku and Tom Lenk should be promoted to regulars because Faith was LONG overdue to be a central character and Andrew had a big role in this season, so it made sense to have him in every episode as well. Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, and James Marsters were cut out as regulars because Anya and Spike had died in "Chosen", and Spike was already a regular on "Angel" in my Season 7. As for Dawn, the official reason is that since Andrew had revealed in Angel Season 5 that Dawn would have been in school in Rome at the time, I had her stay there during the season. {{SPOILER HERE: The unofficial reason is that I wanted an excuse to get rid of her without killing her (yet).}}

Episode three was meant to bring closure to the Xander/Anya chapter of the Buffy universe by bringing back Vengeance demons and D'Hoffryn. The episode (had it been a real episode written by me and produced by the Buffy writers) would have been a comedic/nostalgic/sad story about how the Vengeance demon was sent to cause havoc on the group, and Xander's realization of what was happening, his one-to-one talk with D'Hoffryn, and both of them finally accepting Anya's death felt extremely necessary to round off both Anya's character and her relationship with Xander. The mutual truce was so that everyone can be sure that they would never have to deal with Vengeance demons again.

Episode four was created for two reasons: To start off the potential for a Buffy/Xander romance, and to have an episode with not one, but TWO actors from Firefly participate in an episode of Buffy. Knowing the plot would involve a decent male character and a seductive (slightly insane) female character, Sean Maher (Simon), and Christina Hendricks (YoSafBridge) seemed perfect casting picks were this episode really made. Since Xander's Buffy crush seemed to have died out around Season 4, I had to think of a way to have Xander's emotions aroused again and to do it without Buffy intending to have it happen.

Episode five, having Giles be gone a while, then returning to tell of an adventure he had had on his own involving his intelligence seemed like a fun stand-alone episode.

In episodes six and seven, Buffy and Xander come to realize that they think they have fallen for each other. I couldn't have them become a couple right there, because it would have been way too soon to be believable and they had to work their way toward it and see if their feelings weren't just for comfort after their respective lovers died two years earlier. And having Andrew act as a psychiatrist to them made sense (He did it before in "Storyteller", after all), then having the revelation of Spike telling him that his brother Tucker had broken out of rehab and was tracking Buffy down would have made this a great episode. Tucker coming back was the first thing about the new season that I'd wanted to do with it, especially since he was originally supposed to be part of The Trio, and since he was last seen in his basement during "The Prom", I was sure that people would have wondered what had happened to him. Well, it's perfectly reasonable to expect that he had been sent away to be rehabilitated, and after seven years, he was bound to be released by then.

Episode eight was interesting because it would have focused heavily on two previously minor characters: Tucker Wells and Clem. I knew Tucker had to find his way to Buffy somehow, so how would he know where to look? Naturally, he goes back to Sunnydale and finds that the town had collapsed. I decided the person he meets there would be Clem because everybody seems to love Clem and I wanted to give him an indirect role in the flow of the season. He's an innocent guy and has no idea who Tucker is and is just trying be helpful to him by telling him what he thinks (And going to Sunnydale's crater to mourn Spike just seems like something Clem would do). And Andrew's conflicting thoughts about Tucker and his relationship with him would have been good to see onscreen.

In episode nine, Dracula crosses over from his time in my Angel Season 7 and confronts Buffy for a final faceoff. And just like before, he gets wailed on both physically and emotionally by Buffy and Xander respectively. Also, Dracula would have been a good excuse to let Xander cut loose about his feelings, resulting in everyone suspecting something may be up with him, causing Andrew to confess his secret knowledge of Buffy and Xander's emotional confusion.

Now, episodes ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen were probably the ones I am most glad worked out in the season. A parallel universe! "The Wish" was an alternate universe, meaning the same characters with different outcomes. This universe is basically the opposite of the real one: people who are good are bad, bad people are good, some dead characters are alive and some living characters are dead. It was great to imagine a possible universe and to have some of the characters sent there by Tucker. I tried to have the parallel characters be similar to the characters they are switched with and yet retain some of their original traits: Parallel Buffy-The Master, Parallel Xander-Pre-chipped Spike, Parallel Glory-Buffy, Parallel Caleb-Giles, Parallel The Master-Angel, etc. Then referencing past villains in the parallel world who weren't in the real universe, like Principal Snyder in The Mayor's role, Cordleia as a Glory-like god, Riley as an Adam-like cyborg, and having Warren, Andrew, and Jonathan be The Three (who weren't mentioned much after their deaths in Season 1) was great to come up with. Spike and Illyria crossing over to help Andrew with Tucker was mostly leading up to their inclusion in Season 9. And having them help rescue Buffy and the others with only Andrew knowing about it was also meant to lead up to a pivotal revelation in Season 9.

Episodes fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen were mostly just filler episodes, but having Andrew trained to fight better was something I'd always imagined Andrew would want, especially as the Big Bad seems to be his own brother.

Episode seventeen brings back Amy once more, attempting to screw with Willow again. I know that the dark magic addiction thing was done in Season Six, but this time, Willow, through her development between then and now, refuses it on her own and sends Amy packing for good. Amy needed a better send off than she was given in "The Killer in Me".

Episode eighteen is based off of a one-shot story I had done about Xander witnessing a universe in which he didn't exist. I looked at all the episodes from Season One and envisioned them without Xander and what would happen. It makes Xander (and everyone else) appreciate him more. The episode itself (which can be seen in narrative format on this site under the same title) is pretty much self-explanatory.

Episode nineteen starts off the journey of the REAL Big Bads of the season: the Parallel Scooby Gang. Tucker summons them all, then is chased away and forced to turn himself in to avoid being killed by the parallels (or threatened to be flayed alive like Warren, which would have been funny to see Tucker's face during that fake threat by Willow, who we know would realistically never kill anyone again).

Episode Twenty was an interesting idea, having the evil Parallel Giles offer to switch sides. If any of you have read my story "Black Mirror", you would know that Parallel Giles was basically a punching bag for the others, so having him decide to switch sides seemed a realistic thing for him to do. Plus, imagine Buffy working with TWO Giles'.

Episodes twenty one and twenty two round out the season in a big way. The parallel versions of Buffy, Xander, and Willow round up and army of vampires and fight against Buffy and her portion of the army of Slayers (she couldn't house a whole army, plus it was revealed that everybody had been scattered earlier). Having Willow defeat her parallel self was, in a sense, another way of her overcoming and defeating her dark side. Then having Parallel Giles sacrifice himself to kill Parallel Buffy and saving the real Buffy would have been a really powerful moment of redemption for him (he finally gets his revenge on the leader who had neglected him). Then having Giles be worried about his evil self being good and his fears that he might not be would have been an interesting callback to his days as Ripper and him wondering if he could end up going back that way was something interesting to play at. Faith's statement that Giles must be such a good person that even his parallel self had decency would have been a big moment for Giles and a real bonding moment for him and Faith that leads up to their future relationship (more in Season 9). Having Buffy finally decide to give her and Xander "A shot" shows that they still aren't sure about themselves, but are willing to test it, while Andrew's feelings about Tucker will continue to dog him throughout Season 9.

Well, there you have it. To read more on the methods behind my madness, see Season 9 for the conclusion (Read the season first if you haven't yet).


End file.
